Scrum Teams are often Coached to Death, while the Problems are With Management

Team-level coaching isn’t?enough

I feel for all the Scrum teams that do the best they can to make their Scrum work, only to be obstructed by management. I have seen so many teams who understand the concepts of Scrum and who are super motivated. They often improve greatly in the first few months. And then their improvements come to a grinding halt.

The company leadership obstructs their progress. And to put insult to injury, the team gets the blame for stalling. So they are sent to yet another training or the company hires external coaches to improve the teams. And all the while, the elephant in the room is not addressed. The managers and company leaders do not change. As “Agile is for teams only”. It doesn’t affect them.

The idea that Agile is for teams only is a gross misconception and harmful. Not only are the teams limited in creating high-value products. But the people are also sure to feel disappointed, frustrated, or even betrayed. They feel restricted. And this is not the best state of mind to do your work. Or to stay with the company.

Scrum Teams are generally great at managing themselves. But they are restricted by the organization in many ways. Let’s dive into a couple of examples.

Telling teams what they should do and by?when

One of the vital aspects of complex work is that you don’t know upfront what will bring the highest value.

“In complex environments, what will happen is unknown.” — Scrum Guide 2020

You need to take a small step, learn from this step and then decide what to do next. Teams need to creatively work together to take this step, to create the next increment of the product.

This is why the decision power on what to do, how to do it and by when should be with the Scrum Team. The Product Owner is the one person who determines the order of the Product Backlog and that is the only source of work for the Scrum Team. This is an essential element of Scrum.

But this doesn’t stop managers and other people outside the Scrum Team to bypass the Product Owner and asking or instructing the team to do something else instead. This doesn’t make any sense. Yet, this often happens. This impacts the team’s capacity to respond to complexity. It ignores the very concept of Scrum.

Telling teams to commit to the work planned, not the?outcome

Almost as destructive as telling teams what to do is allowing teams to create their own plans but telling them to stick to these plans, committing to the work.

I wish to be clear here. Commitment in itself is a good thing. It’s even one of the 5 Scrum Values! But in complex environments, teams can’t commit to a detailed output-based plan. You don’t know exactly what you need to do to achieve your goal.

What's more: delivering all the output according to plan is not a success either. You don’t know if what you created will achieve your goal. The whole point of building a product increment is to learn if you are taking steps towards your goal.

Teams can still commit, but then towards achieving their goals. Scrum Teams have the Sprint Goal as a commitment for a Sprint. They have the Product Goal as their longer-term commitment.

Managers that tell the team to commit to their plans are basically asking the team to forget about learning from what they create. Managers believe the world is predictable. This belief is catastrophic for the effectiveness of Scrum. And the Scrum Team members know this all too well.

Continuing to have individual appraisals that conflict with the team?goals

Scrum Teams collaborate to achieve common goals. Teamwork is key. People with different skill sets combine their talents to create a product increment. Product Goal, Sprint Goal and the quality measures of the Definition of Done are their commitment. It would be logical and normal to judge the Scrum Team members on how they meet these commitments.

But when the organization ignores the team goals and continues to pursue separate individual appraisals, this jeopardizes the whole concept of common goals. Because the individual appraisal will have an impact on salary and career opportunities. Then it is logical that team members are incentivized to put their own objectives over the team objectives.

Continuing praising teams that break their sustainable pace

Scrum Teams work in a complex environment, which calls for collaboration and creativity. The team members should have their collective focus on their goals. Working at a sustainable pace has proven to be essential to achieving this:

“Working in Sprints at a sustainable pace improves the Scrum Team’s focus and consistency.” — Scrum Guide 2020

Yet, many organizations praise teams that “go the extra mile”, and that plan to do work exceeding their capacity. And (then) work overtime regularly.

In the end, this behaviour will only lead to mistakes, low morale and burned-out people. It doesn’t make any sense. Let people work at a sustainable pace and you will reap the benefits.

Continuing to expect teams to work on multiple things at the same?time

Focus is essential. Scrum Teams need to focus to achieve their goals. Without proper focus, teams will not have the opportunity to collaborate to solve complex problems.

A sure way to disrupt focus is to ask teams to work on multiple things at the same time. This leads to a loss of creativity and productivity. And has a huge negative impact on the effectiveness of the team.

Continuing to see the output as a measure of success, not the?outcome

Scrum Teams aim to create output, called product increments, every Sprint. Output is important. Without it, it is typically impossible to achieve your goals and your intended outcome.

But in a complex environment, the output you create is no guarantee for success. Teams may be very efficient in creating new increments of the product. But if they don’t add the intended value, it is all wasted work.

Scrum Teams need to verify if their increments bring them closer to their goal. They do this with their stakeholders, which can be users, customers or other people with a vested interest in the product.

Scrum Teams can measure their progress by assessing how effective they are in meeting their commitments, the Product Goal, Sprint Goal and Definition of Done.

Managers that continue to see the output as a measure of success are pushing teams in the wrong direction. Away from the purpose of Scrum.

Continuing to ignore organizational impediments

Scrum Teams don’t work in isolation. They are part of an organization. They have to deal with the culture, procedures, rules and regulations of that organization. This is logical and a good thing. As an organization, you wish to establish what you are and what you find important.

But many Scrum Teams will challenge the status quo. This is an integral part of the framework. Teams constantly need to look for better ways to do their work and be effective. This means that organizational impediments need to be addressed as well.

Certain cultural aspects within the organization may not fit with the philosophy of Scrum. Procedures, rules and regulations may hinder the teams from having fast feedback on what they created. If these are impediments to the team’s progress, these impediments should be removed.

When managers and company leaders ignore this or disallow these changes, Scrum Teams will inevitably hit a wall. They will come to a point where they will not be able to improve anymore. And as soon as a Scrum Team can’t improve anymore, they will cease being effective. The team often gets the blame for that. And team members may be disheartened and demotivated.

Fix the ideas of your managers and company?leaders!

I just gave some examples of how managers and leaders obstruct Scrum Teams to be effective. Yet, most of the time, the focus of Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches is on the teams alone. They receive countless pieces of training and coaching support. Or are thrown in yet another agile transformation.

But you shouldn’t try to convince the people that are already agile believers. They are either in your camp already or they are so disheartened by the practical implementation that they are only getting more sceptical.

In these cases, Scrum Masters (and other Agile Coaches) should focus on fixing the ideas of managers and company leaders instead. If the issue is with these people, if the impediment to progress is their false notion of Agile, then target them.

Coach the managers and leaders. Extend the implementation of Scrum to include them. After all, leaders and stakeholders are vital to the success of the Scrum Teams. Help managers and company leaders to:

• establish and communicate a vision;
• align the vision with the company goals;
• foster a culture of trust;
• acknowledge the Scrum Master as a leader who also supports the organization;
• understand the importance of self-management and cross-functional teams;
• help to bring changes to the organization to remove impediments to the Scrum team's progress.

What do you expect from your teams when you tell them to do Scrum, send them to training, get them all excited and then don’t follow through? Leadership should set goals and free their teams of the shackles. The rest will follow automatically.